Current wireless technology permits service providers to provide a variety of communication services to subscribers. With Third Generation (3G) technology, for example, service providers may be able to provide on-line, real-time transfer of information. That is, a subscriber may be able to participate in a voice call while browsing the Internet at the same time. In another example, the subscriber may be able to download images and/or files during a live video conference call. To provide such communication services concurrently, many different core networks such as a circuit switched (CS) core network and a packet switched (PS) core network may be involved. For example, the CS and the PS core networks may work together to coordinate paging service (i.e., request for identification of a user equipment such as a cellular telephone, a pager, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a handheld computer). Typically in the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), however, the interaction between the CS and the PS core networks is limited to paging only.
Further, some communication services from the CS and the PS core networks may require the same resources within the user equipment. That is, the user equipment may have certain external (e.g., bandwidth and data rate) and internal (e.g., memory) limitations. As a result, those services may exceed the capabilities of the user equipment by occurring concurrently and/or simultaneously.
One aspect of designing a wireless communication system is to optimize resources available to the user equipment. Because of the lack of coordination between the CS and the PS core networks, and limitations of the user equipment, resource conflicts between communication services may occur. Therefore, a need exists to allow the user equipment to coordinate the allocation of resources for communication services.